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January 30, 2011

Bound and determined

Time flies. The Free Motion Quilt Along quilt is bound and sitting in my sewing room. It's a little stitch library, a fun piece to show the possibilities of free motion quilting.

What an experience this project was! I'm still not an expert. But working through different pattern families was a good exercise to help me think more clearly about quilting designs. And it definitely improved my quilting.

Mostly this post is to say thank you. Some of you have commented, or emailed, or mentioned to me in person, that this series was helpful to you. I can't say enough how wonderful this made me feel. These words buoyed me through the weeks.

Feeling like I had something to share was powerful. It changed the way I thought about myself as a quilter. Thank you for helping me grow, with the magic of your words! And thanks for coming along with me on this ride, whether you actually stitched along or not. Thanks for sharing your quilting photos on your blogs and Flickr, for telling your friends, for being patient when I got behind.

20 comments:

Thanks to YOU, who changed my belief from 'I cannot do this' to 'Yes, I manage, not perfectly but I dont mind' :o) It has been such fun and you have been a great teacher. I hope you will leave the lessons on your blog, I plan to print it and put it in a book.Hugs from Norway

Thanks so much for this project! Mine's not finished and may not be, but I learned so much and have it handy for reference.Do you have a picture of yours in all it's glory? I'd love to see the whole quilt:)

I can't remember how I found your blog - I think in the comments of someone's post about free motion quilting! I am so impressed with your ideas and showing us how practice can pay off!!! I link to your site in comments to anyone needed ideas or free motion help!

I started following your blog during the middle of the quilt along. I did learn so much especially about the value of planning on paper. I hope you will show another full shot of the quilt all bound. It's really neat!

Thank YOU for sharing all your work and progress and for teaching me to think out of the box. I certainly hope this is not "goodbye" but rather you'll continue to teach and inspire us to reach higher than we had before.

You, Christina, did a very good thing. You can always look back on 2010 as a year of change and growth and, yes, leadership and guidance. You have a gift and you share it. That is a big part of God's purpose for our lives. I love to read these comments and see how many other people's quilting lives were changed and enriched by your 'loosing the bonds' that held us in fear. Thank you for taking all the time in preparation of the lessons, and the sample. I have not finished my 'practice quilt', and may not, as I wish I had chosen solids like you did to really show the progress. But you KNOW that you have spurred me through several other entire quilts that I would have just straight-stitched with a walking foot. I treasure the gift that you shared. Yes, YOU ROCK, girl !

Well, I'm still behind. BUT, you helped me be brave enough to FMQ a small piece I'll be posting this week. It was really small...about 12x12. That was even LESS intimidating! Now I bought Leah Day's book and want to practice more. Seeing your "stitch library" idea has me going. I could practice some of Leah's designs on the top I've pieced for this project. I'll get back on it.

Christina, if nothing else, I have just really enjoyed getting to know you through your blog. I have really enjoyed you.

Your quilt-along helped a great deal, especially to get over that internal hurdle and make me think that I can do this. I still need to catch up since November, and I fully intend to. Thank you so very much for doing this quilt-along!

Ha! I learned so much from you! I ended up finishing my quilt later than I hoped, but I just gave it to my grandmother as a late Christmas present. She helped me learn to sew on machine, so I wanted to give her another of my "firsts" to thank her for helping me get started all those years ago and to demonstrate how far I've come. She loved it, immediately draped it over the back of her favorite recliner (where the colors are just PERFECT, I must add!) and looks forward to having a warm lap as she reads the library's latest mystery novels. :-) Beyond that, the quilt-along has given me confidence in my abilities to be more than a hand-quilter... I may make another "sampler" just for the fun of it :-)

Christina, your FMQ tutorial was so helpful - I'd been doing FMQ for a while, but you showed me how to branch out to other patterns and how to create my own. I'm still having trouble with feathers, but I'll get there! Thanks so much for taking the enormous amount of time it must have taken to do this!!

Christina--Thank you so much for putting in so much time and effort in the Free Motion Quilt along. I've been machine quilting for a long time and even have taught classes. We all can learn from each other. I am not finished with my wall hanging, but will finish it this winter. Thanks again for making me look outside the box :) There is more to free motion quilting than meandering! There's feathers, leaves, and a whole world out there to quilt!

Good day, Christina - I occasionally check my "Followers" and today I stole some time to see what YOU do. My, my, do I LOVE your photos of your machine quilting! You GO! I'm in a funk these days, and I think your inspiration gave me the needed poke in the rear!. Thank you, and thanks for being a follower of my humble offerings. 8-))